


Puppy Love (and the Cat's Meow)

by lightlysaltedapples



Category: Original Work
Genre: But only if you squint, Cat/Human Hybrids, Catboys & Catgirls, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Not Beta Read, Useless Lesbians, We Die Like Men, because theyre fun, dog girl, pov switches each chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29077950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightlysaltedapples/pseuds/lightlysaltedapples
Summary: Parker was exactly the kind of girl that Maria would never fall for.(But then she did.)
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s), Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Kudos: 4





	Puppy Love (and the Cat's Meow)

6:45. Every Friday.  
That girl with the incessantly wagging tail and the stupid look on her face would stop by the park bench where Maria sat to pause for a moment from her daily run, her shoulders heaving with the effort of it. Sweat made strands of her blonde hair stick to her face, and each time, she’d struggle to catch her breath again. She’d be wearing some old tee shirt and a pair of shorts, not that Maria was paying any attention. No, she wouldn’t be paying attention when that girl moved her strong arms to tie back her hair, or when she’d tell a joke to no one in particular.

No, Maria was hardly interested in anyone, much less her and her stupid little floppy golden ears, or her big brown eyes. She doubted she herself would even ever go for a girl, much less one like that. No, if a girl was going to make her have some crisis of sexuality, it wasn’t going to be that one. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t allowed to watch her as she did her stretches. She was already there, after all, and there was nothing wrong with it. Maria had been telling herself forever that she’d get into yoga. Maybe this was the universe’s sign that it was time to.

It started with the water bottle.

It was a humid sort of night in June, the kind where the heat didn’t fully leave until long after sunset. Maria was there on her bench, lazily thumbing through her old sketchbook, looking for an empty space. One day, she promised herself, one day I’ll organize all this.

She was dressed for a warmer night than it was. She wore her leather jacket over a black turtleneck, a few cheap silver necklaces hanging from her neckline. Her backpack, nearly covered in the pin collection she’d amassed over the years, rested by her feet. She left her dark hair down for the evening. It was curly, down to just above her shoulders. A pair of black cat ears parted it atop her head, twitching whenever a sound was just a little bit too sudden for her subconscious’s liking. Her tail had fur the same dark color, and waved lazily by her bag. Her green eyes were looking over her book, yes, but she couldn’t help but risk quick glances to that girl, where she stood catching her breath. She’d pushed herself too far again, it seemed, as she did every Friday evening. Usually, after a few minutes, she’d shake it off and start up running again, and that’d be the last Maria would see of her until the next day. But today, for the first time, Maria heard her voice.

“Hey.” It was simple and somehow higher than she’d been expecting, though it had a certain roughness to it. She sounded out of breath, which made sense. Maria rested her book down and looked up at her expectantly. “You… you, uh, got water on you?”

Maria cocked a brow. She did, as it happened, but she didn’t know this girl beyond her schedule, and the fact that she was wearing the same blue sweatshirt she’d worn last week. Wordlessly, she pulled the plastic water bottle out of her backpack and offered it up to the kind-of stranger, who took it gratefully. She drank it down all in a hurry in desperate gulps. It was full one second, then Maria blinked, and it was nearly empty. The girl wiped her mouth with the back of her wrist and heaved a tired sigh.  
“Thanks, I owe you one.” She nodded. Again, she broke the code of normalcy Maria had established in her mind. She sat down on the bench next to the one Maria had claimed for herself. For a moment, there was quiet. “Man,” she hummed. “I feel like I’ve seen you before somewhere-- you’re here a lot, aren’t you?”

Maria turned her gaze back to her sketchbook, though she wasn’t really looking through it anymore. She was too distracted with this girl she was not into sitting so close, where she could get a better look at her toned muscles and her shining eyes if she wanted to. (But she didn’t want to.) “Could say the same about you. Friday runs in the park, hm?”

To her surprise, the girl started to laugh. It was a gentle and rolling sound, like quiet thunder from far away. “Oh, yeah, something like that.” She shrugged, turning her body so she was facing her. “Name’s Parker, by the way. I like your jacket.”

“Maria. I’m charmed.”

The quiet fell back over them for a long moment then, but Maria could feel Parker looking back at her every now and again. Her tail twitched slightly.

“So…” Parker began, sounding like she’d finally relaxed her body a bit “I owe you, big time. Howsabout coffee tomorrow? I’m buying.”

Parker wasn’t the kind of girl that Maria would have any crisis over. But free coffee was free coffee.


End file.
